Director, Strategic Sourcing - Technology

The Enterprise Sourcing team serves as a strategic enabler for the company, driving excellence in category management, supplier relationship management, and strategic sourcing. Collaborating closely with business and functional leaders across the enterprise, the team ensures informed supplier selection and skillfully negotiates agreements that maximize value while safeguarding against risk. 

We are seeking a seasoned Sourcing executive with strong experience and a proven track record in driving meaningful third-party savings in technology spending  

The Director of Technology Sourcing shall lead a team in partnering with leaders across the company to understand business priorities, challenge existing spend where appropriate, and influence sourcing and supplier decisions. The Director shall develop category management to maturity by optimizing addressable categories, rationalizing vendors, and increasing purchasing leverage to deliver stronger commercial outcomes, and shall create category strategies with a rolling 3-year plan for pursuing savings and other value-added opportunities. The Director shall form and manage relationships with key suppliers, including negotiating enterprise-level agreements and resolving potential disputes; build a high-performing team; and lead sourcing transformation, including change management on new processes. The Director shall also keep key stakeholders updated on category performance and opportunities on a regular basis. 

This role can be based in Burbank, CA, San Francisco, CA, or Orlando, FL.

Responsibilities of the Role:

Business Partnership and Category Management: Partner with leaders across the company to understand business priorities and influence sourcing and supplier decisions 

• Challenge existing spend where appropriate (need, scope, utilization and pricing), and engage early, before requirements are set and suppliers are selected 
• Build alignment and buy-in across Finance, Legal, Information Security and business leaders, and keep stakeholders informed on category performance, supplier negotiations and opportunities on a regular cadence 

Sourcing strategy creation and delivery within Technology categories: Responsible for developing and implementing category strategies, aligned with the business objectives of the relevant Disney stakeholders 

• Build strong partnerships with business and functional stakeholders. Collaboratively develop a multi-year sourcing plan for specific categories aligned to business objectives and technology strategy.   
• Partner closely with the vendor management offices, architecture, product owners, and business stakeholders of the technology organizations to develop and execute on category strategies. 
• Establish bold cost-take-out goals and drive cost-saving initiatives and continuous improvement projects within the category to achieve them 
• Drive innovation in categories by exploring new sourcing models, technologies, and processes 
• Lead cross-functional teams to execute category strategies 
• Monitor key metrics to track actual performance versus plan and identify additional opportunities for cost savings and other value adds 

Category Management Maturity: Develop category management to maturity to increase purchasing leverage and commercial outcomes 

• Move the work from reactive renewals to proactive category ownership 
• Establish a spend baseline and optimize addressable categories, segmenting spend by strategic importance, risk and opportunity 
• Lead vendor rationalization and consolidation to simplify the supplier base and reduce duplicate capabilities 
• Increase purchasing leverage by aggregating demand across business units, standardizing terms and optimizing pricing models and commitments 
• Track and validate hard savings and cost avoidance 

Category Ownership: This Director will be responsible for category strategies and associated savings projects and contract negotiations for the following technology categories. The Director must partner with the other Director of Tech Sourcing and the VP of Tech Sourcing to ultimately create a holistic Tech sourcing strategy and plan across all Technology categories. 

• Network OEM & HW Infrastructure 
• Telecom 
• Data Center 
• Value Added Resellers  
• End User Computer Devices 
• Collaboration Tools 
• IT Operations Management Tools
• Security and Identity management 
• Project and Portfolio Management 
• HR & Finance Technology Tools 
• IT Services

Key Supplier Negotiations and Relationship Management:  

• For key suppliers, direct contract negotiations to ensure the best prices, quality, and delivery terms are achieved including alternatives, flexibility and exit rights 
• Pricing-model fluency across consumption, committed-use and enterprise licensing 
• Establish supplier segmentation and champion supplier relations beyond metrics with most strategic suppliers, driving innovation, quality, and risk reduction.   
• Manage supplier risk (concentration, security, resilience and AI-related terms), resolve disputes, and manage the renewal calendar so negotiations begin early 

Sourcing Transformation and Change Management: Lead sourcing transformation through maturing category management and change management on new processes, in partnership with Sr Leadership, in their leadership of transformation across operating model, organization optimization and digitization of the function. 

• Be a strong change agent to further shift the team’s mindset from receiving requests to strategic partner proactively driving category and renewal strategies 
• Experienced measuring success 
• Championing AI and automation inside the sourcing team 
• Support efforts to identify opportunities to streamline processes and advance systems, data and operational automation to deliver efficiencies, support guided buying and drive third party spend savings.   
• Define adoption goals and measures for new processes and tools (for example, early sourcing engagement, spend under category strategy and policy compliance), and engage stakeholders through communication, training and feedback 

Team Leadership and Capability Building: Develop high-performing teams with the capabilities to execute on category strategy, identify opportunities, influence stakeholders and negotiate effectively 

• 5-7 years managing teams 
• Ability to influence VP+ level stakeholders 
• Building a culture of curiosity and continuous improvement 
• Recruit and develop the right talent into the team, instilling a culture of collaboration, accountability and ownership 
• Provide clear expectations and meaningful feedback against goal 
• Identify individual gaps and evolve the skills of the team as Sourcing transforms.  
• Assess capability gaps and close them through coaching, training, shared playbooks and negotiation preparation standards; plan for succession

Required Education

• 4 year college degree or equivalent experience

Preferred Education

• M.B.A. or Advanced Degree i.e. J.D.

Required Work Experience

• 12 or more years in Sourcing specifically in technology sourcing – hardware, software, telecom, IT professional services (managed services and projects), cloud, data centers/hosting or equivalent experience
• Experience with sourcing, stakeholder management, category management and cost-take-out initiatives 
• Proven success maturing category management (spend baselines, vendor rationalization, demand aggregation) and delivering measurable commercial outcomes 
• Demonstrated success leading change and influencing senior stakeholders, including challenging existing spend and shifting decisions without direct authority 
• Strong financial acumen and Sourcing strategic thought leadership. Able to create thoughtful strategies and actionable plans informed by complex data analysis  
•  Excellent people leader with a record of building, coaching and developing high-performing teams
• Strong stakeholder engagement skills. Effective collaborator with proven success acting as a strategic partner to business, functional and finance stakeholders. 
•  Strong understanding of process, policies, and compliance 
• Strong negotiation skills. Negotiation experience in creating enterprise-level agreements in technology category with key strategic suppliers 
•  Results-focused: sets specific and measurable goals for team and holds self/team accountable to delivery.  
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Experience with AI tools: ChatGPT, Copilot, Claude.  

Preferred Experience

Specific experience in the following technology sourcing categories which will be the primary focus for this role:

•       VAR (Value Added Reseller)

•       End User Devices (EUC)

•       Network OEM & Hardware Infrastructure

•       Data Center

•       Collaboration Tools

•       IT Security

•       IT Operations Management

•       Security and Identity management

•       HR & Finance Technology

•       IT Services

•       Telecom

•       Project & Portfolio Management Technology

Experience with CLM tools such as Coupa or SAP, SpendHQ, or ServiceNow

Active member of industry sourcing consortiums / best practice forums

Experience with sourcing transformation (operating model change, sourcing technology, guided buying)

Experience with consumption- and commitment-based pricing models (cloud, AI) and partnering with FinOps or technology finance teams

PAY TRANSPARENCY

The hiring range for this position in Burbank, California is $206,600-$252,400 and San Francisco, CA is $226,300-$276,500 and Orlando, FL is $196,800-$240,400 per year based on a 40 hour work week. The amount of hours scheduled per week may vary based on business needs. The base pay actually offered will take into account internal equity and also may vary depending on the candidate’s geographic region, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience among other factors. A bonus and/or long-term incentive units may be provided as part of the compensation package, in addition to the full range of medical, financial, and/or other benefits, dependent on the level and position offered.

This position is with Disney Worldwide Services, Inc., which is part of a business we call The Walt Disney Company (Corporate).

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Disney Worldwide Services, Inc. is an equal opportunity employer. Applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability or protected veteran status. Disney champions a business environment where ideas and decisions from all people help us grow, innovate, create the best stories and be relevant in a constantly evolving world.

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